Sorceress meets Andromeda
by Tscorpio1701
Summary: Three Earth Alliance vessels get thrown into the Andromeda verse, how will the crew from the other universe adapt to their new home, and what adventures await them. On hold pending rewrite.
1. First Strike

**Sorceress meets Andromeda**

**First Strike**

It is the year 2270, the Drakh plague has been defeated and Earth Force is on the offensive. The EFNI had found many of the Drakh's main bases of operation earlier at the end of June and now the main fleet was ready for the biggest counter offensive of its time. Many fleets of ships were split up into Battle Groups; one of these was the _Sorceress_ Battle Group. Centred upon a third generation, and currently only one of her kind in active service, of Warlock class destroyers, the EAS_ Sorceress_.

Redesigned to be more independent than the last two generations, she carries a number of new technologies like a Ram Scoop mounted just forward and below the main engineering hull to collect deuterium from gas giants for her fusion reactors, a new AI system which is made possible due to recent advances in programming and getting access to some Minbari AI tech, called Morgana Le Faye or just Morgana as she's called by her crew. The AI is mostly responsible for navigation and weapons management, including missile guidance.

The _Sorceress_ Battle Group, consisting of the _Sorceress_ itself, two Nova dreadnoughts, four Omega class destroyers and ten Olympus class corvettes, are now moving through Hyperspace towards its target, staying just off the beacon to avoid detection thanks to the advanced scanners of the White Star squadron accompanying the Battle Group. The Captain, Alexei Denisov, a very large man of Russian descent with a full beard, came onto the bridge and asked for a status report from his xo.

"We're just off the beacon sir, according to our White Star escort we're only ten minutes from the target," reported Commander David Corwin. After serving on Babylon 5 for nearly ten years as executive officer he transferred back into the fleet, mainly because he'd had enough of B5 and the endless stress of dealing with bickering diplomats until he finally became almost as cranky as a certain Russian who used to be xo.

"Very good. Tactical, did you get the latest intel from the Rangers yet?"

"Yes sir," answered the Tactical officer, Lieutenant Cmdr Sarah Maxwell. "We should be facing a Single Drakh Mothership and a garrison force of approximately fifteen cruisers and two carriers, both with full complements of gun ships."

"Helm continue on course, stay with the White Star squadron, and remember the plan," the captain ordered in his rough Russian voice.

Space was quiet in orbit of the former Centauri colony, long abandoned due to over mining, the Drakh set up shop here because it was relatively close to Earth space. The Drakh Mothership was currently in orbit around the planet functioning as a fleet base with a large number of its ships that normally would be carried inside it were outside in dry dock being repaired or stripped for spare parts.

The peace was disturbed by the opening of twenty jump points, a squadron of White Stars coming out guns blazing, striking at the Drakh Carriers and their Gunships. The attack had thrown the Drakh into complete chaos which was only increased when the Earth Force fleet jumped in.

Captain Denisov looked at the chaos created by the White Stars and commenced his part of the plan.

"Remove all safeties from the nukes and prepare for full bombardment on those shipyards, make sure we get everyone of those bastards," he said with the fury of a Russian bear. The crew moved quickly to comply. Everyone was looking forward to the fireworks; they would finally be able to get some real payback for what they had tried to do to Earth.

The _Sorceress'_ missile batteries spewed out a full barrage of nuclear tipped missiles, a small number of Blue Phoenix missiles with multiple terminal attack vehicles and large numbers Shillelagh single-shot antiship missiles. The nukes moved swiftly and unmolested, guided by Morgana, the Drakh kept busy by the White Stars, their hatred for anything Vorlon clouding their mind to the danger until it was too late. Only a few Drakh gunships managed to shoot at the missiles and only two were shot down, detonating prematurely causing only minimal damage. The rest flew straight and true, impacting the shipyards and vaporizing them in a blaze of nuclear fire.

This was when Murphy's Law came into play.

"Captain, the Drakh Mothership was not destroyed by the bombardment, she's still intact," reported Maxwell from tactical, annoyed that the new AI guidance system didn't work properly.

"Damn, get me a targeting solution for that ship, we have to take it out," said the captain, rightfully fearing that the Drakh Mothership probably had plenty of ships left inside ready for combat, and today his fears were to be proven right.

Ships came pouring out of the Mothership, Gunships and Cruisers coming out screaming for blood, human blood, fifteen Cruisers and thirty-five Gunships came out, more than a match for the combined ISA\Earth Force Battle Group. The Omega class Destroyers were still heavily engaged with the Drakh garrison forces and more kept coming, slamming into a firestorm of plasma and laser fire, the Novas _Bismarck_ and _Hood_, working in tandem with their Olympus escorts, were gutting Cruisers left, right and centre and destroying Gunships so fast that the crews barely had time to blink. Starfuries were flying all over the place, engaging Drakh Gunships and Cruisers, taking the pressure of the beleaguered Battle Group.

On the bridge of the _Sorceress_, the Captain was not having a good day, he had lost three of his Corvettes and two White Stars had to withdraw for repairs, making his job that little bit harder. His ships were getting pounded from almost every angle.

"Sir, we may have to retreat, we have achieved the primary mission objective, its not worth sacrificing our people, just to get another few ship who no longer have a shipyard to go to," said Commander Corwin, worrying about the ships crew.

The Captain looked long and hard into his xo's eyes, searching for any hint of cowardice; he found none, only a sense of duty.

"Very well," the captain said with great distaste. He never like running from a fight. "We still need to take out that Mothership or they will just continue to build more ships and attack us again and again, and I think I have an idea."

"_Time to take a page out of the Minbari's own book,"_ he thought.

"Morgana, can you open a Jump Point inside or at least very close to the Drakh Mothership?"

"It's possible, but we'd need to get closer for the Jump Point to form where we want it," said the AI in a cold and clinical voice.

"Send these orders by micro burst to the _Bismarck_ and _Hood_, let's see if we can scrounge ourselves some extra firepower."

The orders were sent and the Dreadnoughts _Bismarck_ and _Hood_ with their escorts joined up with the _Sorceress_ and her escorts for their final push to destroy the Drakh Mothership. They formed up into a triangular formation with the _Sorceress_ at the head, the Novas taking the flanks, with the Corvettes spread in between to stop incoming gunships.

"Drakh cruiser closing dead ahead," reported Maxwell, powering up the G. for firing.

"Main guns, FIRE,"

Two blood red beams fired from the _Sorceress's_ G.O.D.'s, slicing through the Drakh ships armour and hitting its reactors, blowing it into its component atoms, opening up a hole in the Drakh line. The Novas, _Bismarck_ taking the port flank while _Hood_ took starboard, concentrated on taking out the cruisers on the flanks with heavy plasma cannon fire, turning several of them into burning wrecks. _Bismarck_ made a slight turn, still maintaining its course, but in the process opened up it's A-arcs, meaning turning the ship so that the ships plasma cannons had a clear shot between turrets, so that the two Drakh Cruisers _Bismarck_ had targeted were hit with multiple turrets each. _Hood_ meanwhile fired all of its forward mounted heavy weapons, including its plasma mortars and heavy q-spoiling laser, concentrating fire on one target at a time, with her other side mounted heavy plasma cannons exchanging broadsides with any ship that came up on her starboard side.

"Maintain course,"

"Incomings heavy, sir," reported Commander Corwin. "We won't last long if this keeps up."

The Drakh redoubled their defensive fire, destroying another corvette, while Sorceress opened up with her hybrid pulse/beam turrets and Rail guns. Particle beams slicing deep into Drakh hull and tightly packed plasma bolts from the pulse cannons widened the rents made in the armour and causing horrific internal damage. Three Drakh cruisers formed up and fired their main guns, overcharging them to, almost, the point of meltdown, hitting the _Bismarck_ and raking across her port side destroying almost all of her port guns and piercing the heavy armour, only emergency bulkheads and internal armour saved her from complete destruction.

"_Bismarck's_ been hit," reported Cmdr Corwin.

"How bad?" asked the captain.

"Heavy damage along her port side, she's lost most of her port batteries, but still able to fight."

_Bismarck_ initiated a slow roll, bringing her starboard batteries to bear on her tormentors, and in that second of waiting for death, the Drakh captains thought, "Oh Shit."

Bismarck fired her remaining arsenal of plasma batteries, overcharging the guns slightly, blue white pulses of plasma slamming straight into the bows of the Drakh cruisers, pounding them into scrap with the fury of a Titan.

After that overwhelming display of firepower and showing the Drakh why it's a stupid idea to piss off a Nova, the Omega group finally manage to link up again with the _Sorceress_, the Destroyers _Juno_, _Galahad_ and _Artemis_. All three had received battle scars, but showed them proudly. The _Juno_ joined up with the _Bismarck_ to lend a hand and provide some extra protection against further attacks. _Galahad_ formed up with the _Sorceress_ and _Artemis_ joined up with the _Hood_, and lent their considerable firepower to the offensive, stabbing out with angry red beams followed by a series of plasma bursts from their guns, alternatively slashing and pounding the Drakh,

"We're now in range captain, I can open a Jump point right in the centre of the Drakh ship if you want me too?" said Morgana.

"Open a channel to the fleet," the captain ordered. "All ships, standby to activate your jump engines, Hood and Bismarck will follow us into our jump point. White Star squadron and Omegas activate your jump engines as soon as our jump point has formed, we're about to attempt the bonehead manoeuvre so push your sub-light engines to maximum burn and get into hyperspace, and brace for debris." He closed the channel.

"Now, Morgana, send those bastards to hell."

"Activating Jump engines," she said. The Jump Engines activated, opening up a Jump Point right in the centre of the Drakh Mothership, tearing it from the inside out, vaporizing the ships reactors before they could go critical, spreading out debris all over the area impacting several Drakh Cruisers, some destroyed, others damaged and many more gunships got caught by fast flying debris, instantly destroying them like a swatted bug.

Two Drakh Cruisers came out of the debris field, like two stalking cats waiting for its prey, from the recently destroyed shipyard. This shipyard wasn't only a repair and maintenance facility, it was also a research centre for testing out Shadow Tech, and one of the Drakh Cruisers was equipped with a very special weapon. As the Jump Point destroys the Mothership the Cruiser fires, a powerful energy pulse straight into the _Sorceress's_ Jump Point, destabilizing it so that it would destroy any ship that went through would be destroyed.

"Captain, a Drakh Cruiser fired something into the Jump Point, its collapsing it," reported Maxwell.

"Pull back, full reverse thrust now…"

"It's too late we're caught in the vortex, wait Morgana's attempting to stabilize the Jump Point."

Morgana just managed to stabilize the Jump Point for a safe Jump, allowing all three ships to enter without destroying themselves. The ships crossed the boundary between normal space and what they thought was Hyperspace. Inside the ships the crew began to feel the effects. It began to shake and the g-forces increased slightly, like it normally does when you jump. The shaking and g-forces increased exponentially, way beyond any normal jump, even on zero-g ships, the people that were not strapped down were thrown all over the place, like balls in a pinball machine, the stresses on the ships increasing more and more. If the crew could see outside they wouldn't find the usual chaotic red and stormy Hyperspace, they would see a long swirling tunnel with no end in sight. The ships that entered followed the tunnel, making sharp twists and turns, straining the ships structural integrity to maximum, almost to breaking point.

Morgana watched as her crew, suffered under the g-forces, knowing that several crewmembers were dead or dying she thought of the only thing she could do. Following one of her main directives, one of them was to safeguard the crew at all costs. It used all of the ships remaining power and opened another Jump point, hoping, if an AI was capable of hoping, that they would be spat out of this insane rollercoaster ride and end up back in either Hyperspace or Normal space. Unfortunately since the Jump engines had no time to cool down they overheated, causing various power-surges throughout the ship, one of them overloaded the computer core and destroyed it, destroying Morgana in the process. The three ships dropped out of the tunnel and into normal space, all tumbling end over end. Automatic stabilisers kicked in, slowing their crazy tumble.

Not far away a ship observed the Jump Point and witnessed the ships tumbling out of it. It set a course, the crew not knowing what they would find…


	2. Strangers in a strange land

**Sorceress meets Andromeda**

**Strangers in a strange land**

Space is generally known as a dark, cold and empty with the exception of the numerous star systems and the ships that travel between them.

A great bright tear in space opened up crackling with energy; this was the telltale sign of a slip point opening up from a region known as slipspace which all local space faring races with interstellar flight capability knew about. An elegant ship came out of the slip point flying out at high speed, the Andromeda Ascendant, one of the last known Grand Heritage class cruisers of the now destroyed Systems Commonwealth, recently bloodied in battle with the Magog World Ship, a dozen worlds linked together around an artificial star with trillions of Magog onboard. Still carrying various battle scars and hull breaches she limped her way across space to the nearest asteroid field to find the raw materials the crew needs to repair her and also a safe place to hide from various scavengers who would take advantage of her current weakness.

One of Andromeda's various sensor drones then picked up a very powerful energy spike which anyone in the home universe of their new visitors would recognize as an unstable Jump Point. Out of it three ships tumbled out, the twists and turns of the unstable Dimensional Jump Point making them and several fighters go all over the place, everyone on those ships knocked out by either the G forces or getting flung into various bulkheads.

Captain Dylan Hunt, commanding officer of the Andromeda, was sleeping for the first time in three days since they had escaped from the Magog and evaded the Magog swarm ships that they sent after them. He had only gotten perhaps two hours of sleep when Andromeda's holographic avatar buzzed him.

"Dylan, I'm sorry to have awakened you, but we have a situation developing in local space."

"More Magog?" asked Dylan wearily, fed up with his sleep getting interrupted by one of his least favourite species, with only one exception that with Rev Bem.

"No, but there has been an unusual energy spike, similar to a slipspace portal, but more like a wormhole yet not, you are needed on the command deck sir."

Dylan got up and dressed, taking a little longer than usual due to having had very little sleep in the last three days, being chased by Magog and felt like he should just send them all straight to hell, preferably with the biggest bang he could find.

He got up to the command deck, finding it still in a state of disrepair and only just starting to get repaired. Beka was at the helm, still using the makeshift temporary control console that she cobbled together ready to make a hasty retreat if things turned nasty.

"Dylan," said Beka as she noticed him enter. "You should take a look at this, Andromeda show him."

At her order the main view screen showed a visual record of what they had detected only a few minutes ago. All Dylan saw empty space, and then a new star appeared then changed and expanded into a blue funnel like opening in space with what seemed like lightning striking out at random intervals.

"That's different," said Dylan watching curiously.

"Wait for it," said Beka, knowing what was coming next.

Three large vessels looking like large rectangular slabs of armour with large gun turrets all over them along with a large number of what Dylan and Beka identified as fighters, two types to be precise, all tumbling like crazy out of the opening, the capital ships firing their thrusters as automated stabilization systems kicked in and brought their mad tumble to a dead stop. The fighters continued to tumble for a few more seconds before their pilots, no longer under the strain of heavy g forces that they experienced during their crazy flight through the Jump Point, got themselves stabilized and started forming up into squadrons in what looked like a picket and getting ready to get back to their ships.

"Andromeda, have you been able to identify those ships?" asked Dylan looking at what is obviously warships, with all that armour and weapons and their basic design screamed don't screw with me unless you have a death wish.

"I can't get anything on them, but I did find a partial match with an early Earth warship design, pre-Commonwealth era," answered Andromeda displaying a ship design that looked similar to the two more boxlike vessels, except that this ship had a rotating section, the ships that came out didn't and were a fair bit bigger and had oversized guns.

"Time travel perhaps, like when we went back in time to the Battle of Witch head?" asked Hunt.

"I don't think so boss," piped up Harper, their chief engineer and resident genius.

"Earth never had warships that were this big in the 23rd century, according to old Earth calendar. These ships are oversized and over gunned and if I'm reading this right, are best described as particle beam and plasma based," he said slightly impressed.

"Not exactly long range weapons are they," remarked Dylan. "Andromeda can you at least give us the names for these ships?"

"Yes sir, their all broadcasting IFF's, I'm translating them into common now!"

"No need Rommie, I already know their names," said Harper quickly, eager to show off his linguistic skills.

"They're called the _EAS Sorceress_, _EAS Bismarck_ and _EAS Hood_, all common Earth based names for ships, although I don't know exactly what the EAS stands for," says Harper.

"I finished translating the ships IFF and I found that the EAS stands for Earth Alliance Starship, which if Harper were a little more patient I would have told everyone," said Rommie in a stern voice.

With that little revelation everyone thought _where are these people from_?

**

* * *

EAS Sorceress**

**Bridge**

Meanwhile on the three Earth Alliance ships, and the fighters that came with them through the unstable Jump Point turned dimensional portal, the crew was just beginning to stir.

Commander Corwin woke up to a bridge with numerous small fires, sparking consoles and the artificial gravity offline. He was floating weightlessly just getting his bearings, when he realized he had gotten quite a few injuries which included a lot of bruising, a few cracked ribs and his left wrist was broken, probably from being flung around during the wild rollercoaster ride through the Jump Point.

He spotted his captain floating nearby, his head at an odd angle. Corwin used a nearby bulkhead to push off and flew straight towards his captain. Upon checking for a pulse he discovered that Captain Denisov was dead, his neck broken, probably caused by being flung into a nearby bulkhead when his seat harness failed. He said a silent prayer for his captain then continued to see if there were still people alive on the bridge.

Luckily there were no more fatalities among the bridge crew, most sharing the same story as Commander Corwin, a lot of bruising, a few with a couple of cracked ribs and another with a broken forearm whom was swiftly ordered to Med Lab. One of the few who escaped serious injury was Maxwell; she had strapped herself firmly into her seat at the tactical station, she always seem to either fall out of her seat or loose her footing during a Jump. The only injury the statuesque brunette had sustained was a nasty bump to her head which, along with the heavy G forces, resulted from a flying computer pad had knocked her out. She was quickly shaken awake by a loud Commander Corwin.

"Wake up commander," he said brusquely.

"What happened?" she asked groggily. "Last thing I remember is going through the Jump Point, then some heavy Gs and something hit my head."

"I don't know, but we've got to get the ship back up and running again, see if you can get communications back online," suggested Corwin as he went around the bridge, checking up on the rest of the crew. A few minutes later artificial gravity came gently online and main power returned.

**

* * *

EAS Sorceress **

**Engineering**

In Main Engineering it was quiet, only the emergency lighting was working and several of them were flickering on and off, the crew was only just beginning to stir from being knocked unconscious during their little side-trip. Chief Engineer Marie Scott woke abruptly when she bumped her head into a bulkhead while floating.

'_Uh, as if I need an even bigger headache,_' she thought to herself, her head feeling like bongo drums were pounding inside her head. She reoriented herself and noted that artificial gravity was off. She took a look at the status boards of the ship and noticed that they were all dark.

A short woman with a figure that belied her military background, yet still had some femininity, and long red hair in a tight pony tail and a temper to match thought, _'Great, what have the idiots in command gotten us into now?'_

She got moving quickly, moving with a grace that belied her experience on zero G ships like older Hyperion's and Nova's. She shook several of her fellow engineers awake and got them to work, getting the reactors powered up and got a team to work on the artificial gravity system, which was quickly restored slowly to bring everyone gently down to the deck so as to not hurt anyone. Soon she got a call from the bridge.

"_Scottie,"_ she winced at that name, the nickname had been stuck with her ever since her academy days, ever since she proved to be somewhat of a miracle worker. _"What's your status down there?"_ asked Commander Corwin.

"We took quite a beating, but according to internal scanners there are no breaches and we got primary systems back online. However it looks like whatever happened to us has rendered our supply of Q40 useless, we couldn't open a Jump point even if we wanted to until we find some," she said distressed. No Q40 meant any possibility for opening a Jump point into Hyperspace was practically zero.

"_Understood, we'll check in with the other ships, se if the same thing happened to them, although they both look a bit worse for wear,"_ said Corwin looking at the main view screen.

Scottie began to feel a sense of dread in her stomach; her younger sister was CMO (Chief Medical Officer) aboard the _Hood_.

"Is the _Hood_ intact," she asked with a slight wavering, barely keeping herself under control.

"_Apparently so, she's still intact, which is better than what happened to _Bismarck_,"_ said Corwin. The _Bismarck_ had been raked along her port side and her trip through the Jump Point had caused massive internal damage, exposing several sections to the hard vacuum of space.

"_The _Hood_ is showing no external signs of venting atmosphere, so the crew should be safe, they may just simply be in the same situation as we are in, they just don't have you,"_ said Corwin teasingly.

"Watch your mouth mister or you'll find your vibe shower reprogrammed for ice water," she jokingly threatened back, knowing that the Commander knew it was well within her power to do so.

"I'll keep that in mind, I'm sure your sister is fine, just give us some time to get communications back online."

She nodded to herself and signed off the com, immersing herself in her work, getting _Sorceress_ back to full operational capacity.

**

* * *

Thunderbolt Starfury**

**Raptor 1**

Being one of the few pilots that woke up first and got in contact with _Sorceress_, was David Sheppard, an ace pilot and squadron leader of Raptor squadron, they're ships showing individual art on top of their birds, his being a Hawk, which came from his call sign Hawkeye, he was put in charge of the CAP, shepherding the various Thunderbolt's and Aurora's to the _Sorceress_, taking on as many as they could.

'_We sure took a beating,'_ he thought to himself as he cruised along the hull of the _Sorceress_ with one of his squad mates, Lt. Forbes, call sign Viper. A young pilot with exceptional skills, she could handle a Thunderbolt like no other. They peeled off towards the _Bismarck_ as soon as they cleared _Sorceress's_ bow, making a beeline for the stricken ship.

"Man, she sure took a beating; looks like she took multiple hits to her mid section, the trip through the Jump Point exacerbated the damage, tearing her apart. It's a wonder how she is still relatively intact," said Lt. Forbes.

"Looks like she's only worth for salvage, maybe as spare parts for the _Hood_, Let's move on to the Hood, check her condition, the Chief Engineers sister is on board, you know," said Hawkeye.

'_Damn_,' thought Forbes, silently praying for her family back on earth.

Suddenly the _Hoods_ running lights came online and her engines fired up, taking her closer to the _Sorceress_.

**

* * *

EAS Sorceress**

**Bridge**

On the bridge the crew had finally managed to make contact with the Hood, but it wasn't the captain they got in touch with.

"Where is your captain and 1st officer?" asked Commander Corwin.

"Both dead sir, there was a power surge on the bridge, killed everyone up here. We only just got the doors open, and found everyone burnt to a crisp," answered a young lieutenant.

"What've the rest of the crew, anymore similar power surges?"

"Yes sir, but not as severe, the rest of the crew only got minor burns and injuries, it was a freak accident."

"Very well, get together a damage report and get yourselves sorted. Oh, one more question, what's the state of your Q40 supplies?

"Completely useless sir, corrupted beyond recognition, even became dangerously radioactive, so we dumped it."

"A shame, our supply was also rendered useless, but not radioactive. Take care of your people, lieutenant?"

"Addams sir, Mark Addams, Hood signing off," and the com line were cut.

"Well, that's one problem out of the way, let's get a search and rescue party ready to go over to the Bismarck…

"Sir, long range scanners have detected a ship closing fast," said one of the sensor operators. "Design is completely unknown, bringing up a silhouette of it."

An image of a ship was put up on a side monitor, looking vary artistic and curvy, more like a pleasure cruiser than a warship, but seemed to radiate a sense of power, like a Nova would.

"Pretty," commented Maxwell, admiring the design.

"It's too far away to gat anything more from it, but at its current speed it will be in visual range in two and a half hours time."

"Communications, try to hail the vessel," said Corwin.

"Already tried sir, either they are ignoring us or they don't have Tachyon communication technology," answered the communications officer.

"Very well, switch to radio; hail them at regular intervals until they respond."

The officer nodded and started to transmit.

The crew continue to work on getting they're ship back to full working order, hoping that the ship approaching were friendly. If not they would blow them out of the sky, or at least try to.

AN: what do you think?

R&R please, my muse feed on constructive criticism.


	3. Stranger in a strange land, continued

**Sorceress meets Andromeda**

**Strangers in a strange land – Continued**

The mood was sombre aboard the Earth Alliance ships Hood and Sorceress as the rescue parties reported to find only a third of the Bismarck's crew had survived. Half the ship had been exposed to hard vacuum, killing almost everyone in the forward and mid sections, the only section that escaped such a fate was the relatively undamaged engineering section, where almost two hundred of a total crew of seven hundred had managed to hunker down and wait for rescue, with small groups in small pockets of air scattered across the remains.

It was, however, not a time for a memorial service as there was an unknown ship on approach, its intentions unclear. Thanks to Chief Engineer Scott's tireless efforts, the Sorceress was ready for action. The story on the Hood was different; the trip through the Jump Point had stressed her space frame beyond breaking point, meaning she couldn't handle the recoil from her plasma cannons in a broadside, so the Hood moved to a position behind and to the right of Sorceress, showing a minimum aspect. Even if she couldn't put out a broadside she could still fire a fearsome frontal volley.

**

* * *

EAS Sorceress **

**Bridge**

Everyone on the bridge was tense, they had only recently been in a battle, and were now ready for another one if necessary. Commander Corwin had just returned from Med Lab, his wrist in a cast and his ribs bandaged, his state mirroring that of the _Sorceress_, damaged, but not broken.

He felt a great sense of pride in his crew, amazed that in only a few short hours since the death of his captain he regarded them as his. He was proud of his people, in particular the engineers who worked tirelessly to get _Sorceress_ ready for action. He just hoped that the _Hood_ would survive if this turned nasty.

The unidentified vessel, codenamed _Bogey 1_, was moving closer; soon they would be in range for a real-time radio transmission. Corwin was getting the final status reports from his new xo, Lieutenant Commander Sarah Maxwell, the former tactical officer.

"All systems are in the green sir, should the balloon go up we'll be ready to respond in a second."

"Very good Commander," he said as he sat heavily in the command chair. "Bring the Interceptor and E-web grids online, but keep the main weapons unpowered, we don't want to seem too provocative."

"Aye sir, Interceptors online, main weapons on hold."

"Communication, begin transmitting our language codes in interlac, let's see if they would be so kind to exchange languages."

"Aye sir, sending standard First Contact package," said the communications officer."

Seconds after sending it the forward view screen came on, showing a sandy haired man, 'a human?' with a small Asian woman standing beside him. He then began speaking in a language that no one on the bridge recognized. A few seconds after he stopped talking he seemed to realize that they didn't understand him, he then gave the Asian woman a look and she started talking.

"I am Andromeda, the shipboard AI for this vessel and this is Captain Dylan Hunt, the commander of this vessel; I will act as translator for this First Contact, the package you sent wasn't necessary since I already have the English language in my databanks."

"So, you're like the Avatar for the Andromeda?"

"Yes."

"How could you have our language in your databanks? We've never seen you before, hell we haven't even encountered anyone that uses AI's in this fashion."

"This may seem strange to ask, but what year do you think this is?"

"2271," Corwin answered, almost dreading the answer he was about to receive.

"I'm sorry I have to tell you this, but by your calendar you're in the 72nd century."

It felt like a someone had kicked him in the gut, not only were they lost in space, but also in time, but the biggest surprise was yet to come.

"History has no record of any ships conforming to the _Hood_ and _Sorceress's_ design, so if our theory is correct you're not even in the same universe anymore."

That last revelation was almost the proverbial straw that broke the equally proverbial camel's back. Everyone on the bridge practically felt their hearts break, they would never see their homes again, their families, loved ones, they would be dead to them by now. It was almost enough to bring Commander Corwin to tears, but he held it in for his crew. _'Got to stay strong for them, can't let them see me cry,'_ he thought bitterly, hoping that he could soon go to his quarters and deal with this himself without the crew having to see their captain break down in tears.

"I believe we should meet face to face, would you and your Captain mind coming aboard to discuss our situation?"

The Android and human started talking amongst themselves, other voices could be heard in the background as they discussed the proposal.

"No, but we would be more than happy to have you come aboard me to discuss this."

Corwin thought this over a little bit, weighing the options. Neither of his ships was in any condition to start a fight, and that ship was scarily fast, but they were just in range of the _Sorceress's_ main guns, one blast at full power should be more than enough to disable the _Andromeda_, at least give him enough time to escape.

"Very well, I'll come aboard by shuttle in thirty minutes, and I'll be bringing along a couple of Marines with me as body guards, is that acceptable." He silenced Commander Maxwell with a raised hand as she stood up to protest this course of action.

"It is acceptable Captain, we'll be waiting." The com line was cut.

"Captain what do you think you're doing? Going over there with only a pair of Marines as bodyguards is tantamount to suicide; we don't know these people, despite how they look."

"Commander if Captain Denisov were still alive I would still be the one that would be sent since I am the most qualified, and quite frankly most of you aren't experienced with First Contact protocols."

"And you are?" she challenged.

"I did serve on Babylon 5 for a long time, under Sinclair, Sheridan and Lochley; I picked up a few things from them over the years."

"I still don't like it," she said with a very sour look upon her face.

"Tough, now get doctor Scott down to the shuttle, she transferred over here with the wounded from the Hood, and she's a Telepath right

"Yes sir." Doctor Janet Scott, sister of Commander Marie Scott, had transferred over from the Hood since its medical facilities had been partially destroyed in rampant power surges that had coursed through her many decks. Then it dawned on her what he was thinking. "Oh no, you're not going to use her like a Commercial Telepath are you? You know that her sister Marie will most likely make sure you have an accident if anything happens to her sister."

"It's a risk I'm more than willing to take, just get her down to the launch bay."

"Aye sir," she said as she went down to the Med Lab to send the good doctor on her way. Minutes later the small aero-shuttle got catapulted out the forward launch bay, setting course for the _Andromeda_. As they came closer to the _Andromeda_ and got to see more of her lines she looked more like a piece of artwork than a warship, but the various gun and missile ports that riddled her hull showed that she was a powerful warship. The shuttle headed straight for one of the _Andromeda's_ shuttle bays they gently touched down onto the deck, then something really surprising happened, gravity began to gently settle in and they felt like they were back at Earth norm gravity, instead of the 0, 9 Gs that you felt on the _Sorceress_.

**

* * *

Andromeda Ascendant**

They gingerly stepped off the shuttle, wearing full spacesuits for fear of contamination, a point doctor Scott had insisted upon before she joined on this little mission. They saw that the doors that led to the rest of the ship opened and three figures came out. Corwin had brought a full Marine Fire team with him; two would stay with the shuttle while the other two went with the Captain and the doctor. They wore full battle-armour, their faces obscured by smart alloy deployable armour with two slits for the eyes, their heads-up display linked to their PPG rifles and sidearm's.

They walked up to the greeting party that came for them, Corwin scrutinised them for a couple of seconds, sizing them up. He recognized Captain Hunt and the Avatar, but the third was someone new. A large dark skinned man with dreadlocks he wore some sort of chainmail shirt with combat trousers and boots, looking more like a mercenary than a professional soldier, yet still had the same bearing as a soldier. Corwin raised his right hand in salute, his subordinates followed swiftly behind.

"Permission to come aboard?"

"Permission granted," said Hunt as he returned the salute, his implant translated the greeting into Common. Rommie translated for their benefit.

"Welcome aboard the _Andromeda Ascendant_, this is Rommie, the Android version of _Andromeda,_ and this man here is our resident Nietzschean Tyr Anasazi, if you'll follow me we can continue this discussion in the conference room."

They followed Captain Hunt and his entourage to one of the main conference rooms aboard. Captain Hunt began to ask, "Why are you wearing environmental suits? I assure you its quite safe."

"I'm sorry captain, but this is both for our protection as well as yours, since we're from totally different times, and universes, who knows what sort of bug could be fatal to us," answered Doctor Scott.

"I can assure you that it is quite safe for you..."

"I'll be the judge of that, thank you very much."

They all sat down at the conference table, the two Marine bodyguards stood by the door, while Tyr stood stoically to the side of the room, scrutinising their four guests. The Marines studied the Nietzschean from behind their masks, sizing him up like the predators they were.

"You mind telling us where we are? Our navigation system is having a tough time pinpointing our exact location, are we even in the Milky Way?" asked Corwin.

"We are indeed inside the Milky Way; in fact we're on the outer edge of it."

"Are we anywhere near Earth?"

"We're about a thousand light years away, but you wouldn't want to go there."

"Why not?"

"Because the Drago-Kazov Pride controls Earth and they wouldn't exactly welcome you there," said Captain Hunt.

"Drago-Kazov Pride?"

"The strongest of the Nietzhean Prides, they took over Earth after the Magog ravaged the planet."

This led to a further explanation of what a Magog was, a brief summary of the history of the Commonwealth and its downfall, how there was chaos in the three galaxies for the past three centuries. Captain Hunt also told them of their latest encounter they had with the Magog, the battle with the World Ship and that it was only disabled, not destroyed.

"So, you have a ship run by a small number of people that wouldn't even rate as a skeleton crew, we have three practically outdated warships with large crews that need a new home, are you proposing an alliance?" asked Corwin, he felt like he was being manipulated, a feeling he knew very well having dealt with various alien ambassadors, including Londo Mollari and G'Kar.

"There is also the wounded to think about, we've got over a thousand injured people crowding the Sorceress, far more than her Med Lab facilities can hope to treat," reminded Doctor Scott.

"We could bring your wounded onboard, there is more than enough space in our sickbay, and I'd like to discuss the possibility of merging your crew with ours."

"What about the _Sorceress_ and the _Hood_, we can't just leave them adrift now," said Corwin, the Sorceress was the first ship he had actual command of and he didn't want to leave anything behind for other races to steal, even if they were in a different universe.

"We have scanned your vessels and we have found that the materials used in their construction could be used to repair the Andromeda," said Rommie.

"You want to scavenge our ships for raw materials?"

"With your permission of course," said Captain Hunt, quickly placating Corwin.

"No, we will not abandon our ships, we are willing to perhaps break down the _Hood_ and the _Bismarck_ for raw materials and spare parts, but I will not allow the Sorceress to be broken up for nothing more than spare parts and raw materials," he said with a passion.

While the two commanding officers were negotiating Doctor Scott was subtly probing the Nietzhean's surface thoughts. All she saw was a very focused mind, and some of his thoughts concerning her and the two Earth Force ships disturbed her. He was finding ways to exploit them, and she also saw that he considered them less than nothing, mere bugs to be squashed. She tried to probe a little deeper and saw what Tyr was planning, all the little contingency plans he had in place, and that he was ready to betray Captain Hunt the instant Captain Hunts back was turned. What she didn't expect was that he felt her intrusion upon his mind and identified her as the source of the intrusion.

"Get out of my mind," he snarled and pulled out his hand gun and levelled it at her, the two Marines quickly pulled out their PPGs and took aim.

"What's going on here?" asked Hunt as he watched events unfold.

"I apologise Captain Hunt, I was doing a mere surface scan of Tyr Anasazi here, I got curious and I delved a little too deeply into his mind," answered Doctor Scott.

"What are you talking about?"

"She's a telepath, you can see by the Psi sign on her space suit, all telepaths in Earth Force have to wear identifying tags to show what they are," said Commander Corwin. "Don't you have human telepaths here?"

"No, we don't, or at least not documented proof," answered Rommie, studying the Doctor with a cool eye.

"You will stay out of my mind, telepath, or I will shot you here and now," said Tyr, worried that this woman hadn't gotten all of his plans.

"You are an ambitious and deceitful bastard Tyr Anasazi, and I am glad that I did do it, you are only loyal to yourself, biding your time to strike like a coiled serpent and should never have been allowed aboard this ship," she said, seriously disliking the Nietzhean with every fibre of her being.

Tyr released the safety on his gun, the Marines charged their PPGs to full charge, not taking any chances with using the stun setting, for all they knew this Nietzhean could take a PPG blast set to stun and would only give him a light sunburn.

"I suggest you put that weapon down mister Anasazi before my Marines burn you to a crisp," warned Commander Corwin.

It could go either way, either Anasazi put down his gun, or he decided to take the shot and be burned to a crisp by two very protective marines.

AN: please r&r.


End file.
